Ethereum developer Toni Wahrstätter has revealed that the Ethereum network is preparing for a radical change in its transaction execution architecture with the upcoming “Glamsterdam” hard fork.
According to Wahrstätter, the core proposal of the update, EIP-7928, will add parallel transaction execution capabilities to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), providing a major step forward in network scalability.
Under EIP-7928, a new structure called “Block Access List” (BAL) will be added to Ethereum blocks. This structure will record the accounts and storage areas accessible by a block, as well as the state changes that occur after each transaction. Thus, the effects of a transaction on the network can be seen directly, without the need to track each transaction individually as before.
Wahrstätter said this system would provide significant benefits to client software. Ethereum clients such as Geth, Nethermind, Besu, Erigon and Reth could verify transactions in parallel without waiting thanks to BAL. This would enable more efficient use of the multi-core architecture of modern processors.
The new architecture will also enable a method called “batch prefetching”, allowing necessary data to be preloaded from disk in bulk during block execution. This will prevent nodes from waiting for data during execution and speed up the transaction verification process.
Another significant contribution of EIP-7928 is the ability to parallelize “post-state root” calculations. Nodes in the network will be able to simultaneously process the updated state tree while block execution continues. This will reduce one of the bottlenecks in the block validation process.
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The update will also improve the Ethereum sync system. Wahrstätter said the new approach, called “snap sync v2,” will allow nodes to catch up with the chain more quickly and completely bypass the “healing” phase required in the current system. This should increase network resilience, especially during periods of high transaction volume.
Ethereum developers say testing showed a five-fold increase in block verification speeds on 6-core machines. This performance increase makes the block gas limit at 300 million realistic, while the Glamsterdam hardfork is initially expected to be implemented with a limit of around 200 million gas.
Wahrstätter also said that EIP-7928 will work in conjunction with EIP-7732 (ePBS), which improves the Proposer-Builder separation framework, saving validators 2-4 times more time for transaction execution.
Wahrstätter argued that the Ethereum community has long worked intensively on scalability and that the Glamsterdam update will be an important step demonstrating what large decentralized developer communities can achieve together towards a common goal.
*This does not constitute investment advice.
